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Anyone have a hive arrangement with a restaurant?

I've been approached by a hotel chef who is interested in having hives on the hotel rooftop to have honey for its restaurant and to brew honey ale. This is an upscale business. I am very eager to do this and am wondering what arrangements others have made and how they are compensated. Do you charge a monthly fee to maintain the hives? To you barter for goods and services? Do you take a percentage of the honey? I'm just looking to be reasonably compensated for time and effort not to make loads of money. I don't know yet if the chef is interested in learning to maintain the bees himself or if he will want me to handle all that (which is my hope) so I'm looking for differnt scenarios.

Re: Anyone have a hive arrangement with a restaurant?

Chances are he'll want you to do it as he's no doubt busy. Personally, I'd think a monthly per (active) hive maintenance fee and then whatever price per lb wholesale you'd want for the honey produced. Just make sure you factor in all your time, including processing, when you figure out what the monthly fee should be.

Re: Anyone have a hive arrangement with a restaurant?

Here is a simple idea for you as I have never done this before.
Supply him with honey through out the year. And charge him at market price.
Then charge him a flat maintenance monthly fee or yearly fee to put your hive there. One hive may or
may not produce much honey so try a few hives to see. Right now doesn't matter what is his intention.
You just talk to him about what you want to do. I am sure you 2 can make a deal out of this.

Re: Anyone have a hive arrangement with a restaurant?

I happen to be a Chef and a beekeeper. I've considered a lot of things, and I am currently offering this deal to my friends/people around me. Buy the full hive and bees (I build and sell them too) for full price ... then I will maintain the hives for 80% of the honey each year. Considering they bought the hives, any season they want to take over, they can do so. All I will guarantee is that the hive stays queenright (I will be on the hook for replacing that, if something happens). Winter loss, anything like that I'm not responsible for - it's not my hive. If you assume 100# of honey from a hive, concentrate on selling the 20% that the hotel will have a right to.

80% seems like a lot, but consider the costs of equipment, time, and honey extracting and such and it isn't that great. I would make a 2 hive minimum to be worth your time driving there.